1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to signal transmission lines in a display apparatus. The display apparatus can be a liquid crystal display.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, liquid crystal displays (LCDs) are some of the most widely used flat panel display (FPD) devices. An LCD has two substrates with field-generating electrodes. A liquid crystal layer is interposed between the substrates. Voltages are applied to the electrodes to rearrange the liquid crystal molecules, thereby controlling the amount of light transmitted by the liquid crystal layer.
One of the two substrates may be a display substrate having gate lines and data lines crossing each other to define a plurality of pixels. The other one of the two substrates is an “opposite” substrate facing the display substrate. A liquid crystal layer is interposed between the display substrate and the opposite substrate. The LCD may have driver chips connected to the display substrate to drive the display apparatus.
In a display apparatus used in small- and medium-sized products, driver chips may be disposed at the upper or lower sides of the display substrate next to the ends of the data lines. As a result, the display apparatus may become longer in the up-and-down direction. However, in recently developed electronic devices such as digital still cameras (DSC), a new design is employed in which operation buttons are placed at a lateral side of the display unit. The driver chips are disposed at the left or right side of the display substrate next to the ends of the gate lines.
While the LCD resolution is gradually increasing, there is still a demand for making the LCD small. Both of these trends lead to increased density of internal signal lines needed to drive the LCD. As the distance between adjacent internal signal lines decreases, LCD failures become more likely. Accordingly, new designs are needed to space the signal lines farther apart to reduce failures. Further, it is desirable to reduce the difference in resistance between different signal lines in order to reduce signal skew.